Green light for Gateway School at QHC

School officials and Jamaica Estates community members recently reached an agreement after years of debate about the particulars for the planned Gateway School, to be built on Queens Hospital Center’s (QHC) campus.
As part of the most recent plan, the highest quality soil will be used for the site, yearly monitoring of the air quality at the school will be conducted, and 50 parking spots for teachers and staff will be constructed.
These issues had been at the heart of community opposition to the school, which will have a capped enrollment at 800 students.
“I understand how daunting the task has been, but believe that great things can happen when school and community work together for the success of our children,” said Gateway Principal Cynthia Edwards at a press conference outside of the planned site on Friday, June 22. “Our relocation to the hospital site provides unique opportunities for the students on a campus that is dedicated to careers in health and medicine.”
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn praised the compromise reached by school officials - led by Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott - politicians, Councilmembers James Gennaro, David Weprin, Melinda Katz, and Jessica Lapin and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and community members, most of who are members of Community Board 8. Quinn also congratulated the politicians’ staffs, whom she said, “sited two schools that everybody thought couldn’t be sited.”
The new Gateway School for Health Sciences site occupies 64,800 square feet on the northern portion of the hospital’s campus - along Goethals Avenue between 160th and 162nd Streets.
Currently, the school, which prepares seventh through 12th graders for careers in medicine and health sciences, is situated on 87th Road in a building that by the Department of Education (DOE’s) own standards is at 118 percent capacity.
The new school, slated for opening in 2010, would accept these 500 students plus an additional crop of 300, so that the Department of Education (DOE) can open another school in the old building.
During the press conference, Borough President Marshall pointed out that the largest shortage of seats is at the high school level.
“Academic training and practical hands-on experience in a state-of-the-art, real-life clinical setting are essential to gain highly specialized education and technical training required to become a doctor, nurse or technician in a constantly progressing environment,” she said.
Last week, school officials brought the previous plan, which had been voted down by Community Board 8, to the City Council for a vote, but then withdrew the proposal after meeting with more community opposition.
After an agreement was reached, the Council voted in favor for revised plan on Friday, June 22.
The new agreement specifies that developers will remove 32 feet of soil, where traces of petroleum were found several years ago but the School Construction Authority (SCA) spokespersons said had not recently been discovered at the site. The contaminated dirt will then be replaced with TAGM 4046. Air quality at the school will be tested twice during the first year, and annually in following years, and a parking lot with up to 50 parking spots will be added initially, with the promise that the city will find parking for the estimated 64 employees who will work at the school.
Community members agreed that a school being built in the location, formerly occupied by the Queens medical examiner’s office, also provided benefits to their neighborhood.
“When you have an old, decrepit building that is basically abandoned, you have a lot of other problems,” said Kevin Forrestal, President of the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association.